Flashes of Fire, Echoes of Screams
by mysticalflute
Summary: Henry missed his portal back to Storybrooke, and no one can get a hold of him... until Snow encounters him in her dreams. Realizing Henry is in danger, the family rallies together to find him. Season 7 AU one-shot series
1. Flashes of the Future

It's Snow's turn to try tonight.

Henry had missed his portal back to Storybrooke almost a year ago, and ever since then, they had been trying to reach Henry via the burning room from their nightmares, and naturally, the entire family (all of Storybrooke, really), were worried about what that meant. Henry was a Charming and a Gold after all, and their family didn't exactly have the _best_ track record for personal safety.

Which is why she and Charming were trying every night to find their wayward grandson, switching off and on as to who would spend time in the burning room. She hated going into the burning room, but she and Charming had conquered it after their extended sleeping curse thanks to the Evil Queen, and it seemed to be the only way to find Henry.

Even Rumpelstiltskin's globe and tracking potions had failed them, which only heightened the urgency to find him.

Regina and Emma had been spending more nights over at the house, despite their assurance that they would call them immediately if one of them figured out where Henry was. Still, she and Emma both had insisted. Snow understood the panic – she'd felt it herself when Emma had been the Dark One… but this had gone on much longer than Emma's curse.

Charming kissed her gently as she closed her eyes and focused on the burning room and on her grandson.

It didn't take long for her to appear, the flames licking ominously at her ankles as she stared with wide green eyes around the room for some human-esque shape that could be her grandson.

"Henry?!" she yells over the roar of the hellscape when she sees something in the distance. "Henry, can you hear me?!"

"Hang on! I'm coming! I'll save you!" the man yells back. His voice doesn't sound like Henry, but Snow was able to get a quick look at his face, and nearly recoiled in horror.

It _is_ Henry, but he's so much _older_. He'd only left Storybrooke a year ago; why was he suddenly an adult?!

"Henry! Where are you?!" Snow yelled. Henry's moved a bit closer, but not enough for them to be able to have a proper conversation. "Please tell me!"

"I'm sorry! Seattle's traffic is a nightmare! You were right, we shouldn't have moved here. But I promise, when I get you both out of here we'll go back to the countryside. Find a little farmhouse, like you've always dreamed!"

Seattle. Good, she had a location, but the rest of the words weren't making any sense to her. Did he not know who she was? If not, why?

"Henry, hang on! I promise we'll find you!" Snow yells as they're ripped further apart suddenly, the flames roaring around them. "We'll always find you!"

Her eyes pop open a split second later, body shooting out of the bed as she scrambles to the door. She doesn't care what time it is or how long everyone's been asleep (or not been asleep).

"REGINA! EMMA! I SAW HIM!" she yelled, and before long, their awkward family unit is seated in the dining room of the Charming farmhouse, wide-eyed and alert despite the four o'clock hour.

"Where did he say he was?" Rumplestiltskin asked, his arm wrapped protectively around Belle's waist.

"Seattle."

The air in the room turned to one of confusion. It was Zelena who processed the impact of her words first.

"If he's in Seattle, he should have shown up on the globe. Which means… he's not in any normal part of Seattle. I think he was cursed somehow," Zelena said, and Snow felt her heart sink. "What else did he say, Snow?"

Snow gripped the mug in front of her tighter. "None of it made any sense. He kept talking about how we would move back to the country and get a farmhouse. I think he thought I was maybe… caught in a real fire or something? But… I don't know how it happened, but he's much older now. A good decade or so I'd think."

"Oh my God," Regina whispered, her head dropping into her hands.

Emma's close to tears and Neal looks the same, the weight of the words hitting them like a train. They'd missed another decade of their son's life.

Rumplestiltskin stood suddenly. "Then to Seattle we go. I don't know what sort of trouble our dear boy got himself into, but it's clear he's in over his head. I presume I should be making sure everyone in this room has a story?"

"What – what are you talking about Rumplestiltskin?" Emma asked with a frown.

"In order to find Henry, we're going to have to infiltrate wherever he is. Just like when we went to Neverland to save him last time. But this is going to take a little more work…" the man's eyes glanced at everyone in the room. "Though luckily, it should be a bit safer to bring our children along with us. Be ready to go at a moment's notice. I'll take care of the rest."

With that, he swept from the room. Belle followed with Gideon, inclining her head in a farewell.

Snow glanced over at Regina, Neal, and Emma, talking in hushed voices and then over at David, Hook, and Robin, also huddled together.

So she turned to Zelena with a soft sigh. "I guess you and I will have to find substitutes for our classes."

"It appears so. But that's okay, as long as we find Henry and fix whatever's happened to him," the red-haired witch sighed.

"We will. If the Black Fairy couldn't tear us apart, nothing will."

Three days later, the caravan sat at the edge of the town. It had taken a lot of work, but Rumplestiltskin had everything prepared down to the last detail, including potions for everyone to leave town.

Snow turned to the young boy in the back seat. "You ready to go to Seattle, sweetheart?"

Neal nodded, patting Wilby's head. "We're going to get Henry back, right?" he asked, biting his lip with worry.

"Of course," Snow said, as the car (upgraded thanks to Rumplestiltskin) began to move and with a sharp inhale, Snow felt the ripple as they passed over the town line, and she blinked, feeling completely normal.

"Step one complete. Everyone okay?" Rumplestiltskin said over the walkie-talkie from the car ahead of theirs.

Confirmation came from the other three cars, and slowly, they began to make their way down the quiet country road.

"Neal, what's our family motto?" Charming asked, looking in the rearview mirror at their son.

"I will always find you," the boy replied. He'd heard it enough in his young life.

"That's right. Which means what?"

Neal was quiet for a moment before his face split into a wide smile. "Which means we'll find Henry!"

Snow and Charming laughed, their hands clasped on the gear shift. They would find Henry. They'd break the curse on him, and then they would return to Storybrooke with their family whole again.


	2. Reflections of the Past

Honestly? Henry _hated_ driving for Swyft. He hated the drunks that puked in the back of his car, the women that whined every time he went over a pothole while they were trying to put on make-up, and the kids that screamed and cried while their parents did nothing to stop it.

Admittedly, that one may have been jealousy that he had lost his own child and the grieving he'd yet to fully go through but still, Henry thought the point still stood.

But the problem was, writing didn't pay as much as he needed it to in order to afford his apartment.

Letting out a sigh, Henry stared blankly at the curser blinking in Microsoft Word, the beginning of the story bitterly refusing to come to him. He'd already written one. It wasn't a best seller but it sold okay. Just not enough to make a living off of. He wasn't J.K. Rowling or something. He'd written a little take on a fairy tale… and a story of his own wishful thinking, he supposed. A boy lucky enough to have three loving parents and more family than he knew what to do with.

It had been his dream, growing up in the orphanage and never being adopted, having watched nearly every day as someone else got to go to a new home. It got worse as he got older, and then when he was eighteen, he was thrown out on his ass.

It had been the worst day of his life until his wife and daughter were killed in their Boston apartment fire.

His phone buzzed and he groaned. It was time to start his shift for Swyft. He just hoped no one left him any _surprises_ by the end of the day.

Letting out a sigh, Henry shut down his laptop and put it back in the drawer. Maybe tonight would generate some ideas for a story.

He thought it every night, and every night, he came home empty.

But maybe tonight would be the night.

As he said every night…

But he shook his head, grabbed his keys, and closed the apartment door. No time to think of dreams like that now. He had rides to give.

He glanced down at his phone, setting the directions in his GPS and started his drive, a classic rock station playing softly in the background. Only You by Yaz.

Henry smiled a little to himself. Man, he hadn't heard that song in the longest time. He turned it up slightly as he approached the school he'd been called to. An elementary school, and his gut twisted uncomfortably as the mother and daughter (his gut twisted again) got into the car.

"Hello! You must be Roni," Henry said in his best customer-voice, giving the duo a smile. "I'm Henry Mills and I'll be your driver today. You said you wanted to go to Roni's Bar?"

Both ladies seemed to freeze for the briefest of seconds, before the adult – that Henry only assumed was Roni – spoke after clearing her throat.

"Yes, Roni, that's me. And… yes, to that bar," she said, staring at him like she'd seen a ghost. He wanted to be concerned about the look, but his gut had twisted upon seeing her and who he presumed was her daughter too, so he wasn't exactly innocent in this.

Henry nodded, implementing the address into his GPS and heading off. "Hyperion Heights isn't a neighborhood I go to often," he remarked, wondering if the woman was in the mood to talk after the strange little scare they'd had.

Roni cleared her throat, and Henry noticed she'd been staring at him. "No? Why is that?" she finally asked.

"I dunno," Henry admitted with a small shrug as he stopped at a red light. "I guess I just assumed that people there had their own taxi services or something."

"Not that I've seen… but we're new to Seattle so I might be wrong," Roni replied with a small shrug. "You were the first person that they sent out."

Henry grinned a little. "Well, don't worry about it, I'll get you to where you need to go." He gave the woman and girl a kind smile. "So you're new to Seattle? Where are you from?"

"Maine!" the little girl piped up, and the mother shot her a look that Henry couldn't quite read, before looking at Henry again.

"A very small town about three hours from the border with Canada. It's not even on any map," she said with a tight smile that had Henry thinking maybe there was something… strange going on with the two. "In a way, I guess you could call it a… fairy tale."

Henry's eyebrow raised slightly as they drove by the strange troll statue. "A fairy tale, huh? Well, Seattle must be a huge change for you guys."

"Yes," Roni said, pressing her lips together in a thin line that Henry could have sworn he'd seen before. "But hopefully, we'll be able to feel like a family again."

Henry stopped the car in front of the bar. "I hope you get that spark back," he agreed with a nod. Roni and her daughter seemed like nice people, so why not wish them well? Especially since they were new in Seattle. "If you ever need another Swyft ride, feel free to ask for me if you were happy with today's ride."

Roni nodded, pulling out her wallet and handing him the fare before she opened the door. "It was… wonderful to meet you Henry. Thank you for the pleasant ride," she said, and there was a strange look on her face again as she and the little girl climbed out of the car and entered through a side door of the bar.

As Henry pulled away from the bar, he frowned a little when he felt… something strike him. A feeling he hadn't felt in the longest time.

Inspiration.

He grinned, pulling over into a free parking spot and dug around for his bag, needing to make sure he wrote down the idea before it was gone.

"Aha!" he said in triumph, finding a pen and his notebook. Looking up, he realized he was parked outside of Mr. Cluck's.

Well… he supposed getting something to eat wouldn't hurt. And a table would be easier to write on than his steering wheel, so he grabbed his bag and made his way into the restaurant. He didn't like to eat fast food normally, but today was a special occasion if he did say so himself.

Thankfully, there was no one in the restaurant ahead of him, so Henry quickly ordered lunch and took a seat at one of the tables, furiously scribbling the ideas down as he ate.

"You know, if your hand goes any faster, you might set your notebook on fire," a voice said.

Henry's eyes snapped up, widening just slightly when they saw a very attractive woman standing in front of him. "Oh – yeah. I just… I'm a writer and so when inspiration strikes sometimes I get a little overexcited."

She giggled a little. "That's good. Can I take your tray for you?"

Henry looked at the empty tray. "Yeah – yeah thanks. I'm Henry by the way."

She smiled. "Nice to meet you Henry. I'm Jacinda."

His phone buzzed in his hand, breaking him from the excitement. Another ride for Swyft. Damn. "Oh – it was nice meeting you Jacinda but I… sorry I have to go," Henry said, quickly grabbing his bag and darting out the door.

But with how strong his inspiration was and with meeting the pretty woman in Mr. Clucks… somehow… somehow, Henry felt like maybe, things were starting to change. And he really liked the warm feeling it was making him feel in his chest.


End file.
